Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

“The postprandial state is a pro-oxidant state”—meaning that after each meal, free radicals are produced as our body assimilates the food. So, we can’t just have a bowl of berries in the morning to meet our minimum daily antioxidant needs, and call it a day. “[E]ach and every meal” should contain high-antioxidant foods, which, if you remember, means plants. “[A]ntioxidant-rich foods originate from the plant kingdom.” This is due to the thousands of natural antioxidant compounds found naturally in plant foods.

For example, “consuming…fruits,” which are high in phenolic phytonutrients, increases the antioxidant capacity of the blood. And, when they are consumed with the Standard American Diet, high-fat and refined carbohydrate “pro-oxidant and pro-inflammatory” meals, they may help counterbalance their negative effects. “Given the content and availability of fat and sugars in the Western diet, regular consumption of phenolic-rich foods, particularly in conjunction with meals, appears to be a prudent strategy to maintain oxidative balance and health.”

And of all fruits, berries may be the best source. So, for example, here’s the spike in oxidation caused by a Mediterranean meal of pasta, tomato sauce, olive oil, and fried fish. Obviously, not enough tomatoes. Add a glass of red wine, which contains berry phytonutrients from grapes, and we can bring down the level of oxidation, but not blunt it completely. So, the meal needs even more plants.

In this study, they gave people standard breakfast items, resulting in lots of oxidized cholesterol in their bloodstream one, two, three, four, five, six hours after the meal. But, all it took was a cup of strawberries with that same breakfast to at least keep the meal from contributing to further oxidation. Note, though, without the strawberries, look where we’d be at lunchtime. Let’s say we ate a standard American breakfast at 6 am, then 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, noon. If we didn’t eat that cup of strawberries with breakfast, by the time lunch rolls around, we’d already be starting out in a hyper-oxidized state and could just make things worse. “Since western eating patterns include eating multiple meals a day, including snacks, one can only speculate on the level of biological unrest.”

But, at least if we had some berries for breakfast, we’d be starting out at baseline for lunch. “This acute protection is likely due to the antioxidant effects of the strawberry phytonutrients.”

Even better than baseline, how about our meal actually improving our antioxidant status? Here’s measuring the antioxidant level of one’s bloodstream after a crappy meal. It drops, using up our antioxidant stores. But, eat a big bunch of red grapes with the meal, and the antioxidant level of our bloodstream goes up, such that our body is in a positive antioxidant balance for a few hours. Same thing after enough blueberries. And, imagine if these ensuing hours between our next meal, right, we were sipping green tea, or hibiscus? We’d have this nice antioxidant surplus all day long.

What, according to the researchers, are the practical implications? “These data provide an interesting perspective for advising individuals on food choices when consuming a moderate- to high-fat meal is unavoidable.” Unavoidable? So, if we’re like locked in a fast food joint, or something? Well, then they suggest chasing whatever we’re forced to eat with some berries. Reminds me of those studies on smokers I talked about, suggesting those who smoke should eat lots of kale and broccoli to reduce the oxidative damage to their DNA—or, they could just not smoke.

“In a single day, the systemic stress of [all that fat in our blood] and redox imbalance [being in a mild pro-oxidant state after meals] may seem trivial. Over time, however, these daily insults can lead to complicated atherosclerosis,” contributing to hundreds of thousands of deaths a year.

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

“The postprandial state is a pro-oxidant state”—meaning that after each meal, free radicals are produced as our body assimilates the food. So, we can’t just have a bowl of berries in the morning to meet our minimum daily antioxidant needs, and call it a day. “[E]ach and every meal” should contain high-antioxidant foods, which, if you remember, means plants. “[A]ntioxidant-rich foods originate from the plant kingdom.” This is due to the thousands of natural antioxidant compounds found naturally in plant foods.

For example, “consuming…fruits,” which are high in phenolic phytonutrients, increases the antioxidant capacity of the blood. And, when they are consumed with the Standard American Diet, high-fat and refined carbohydrate “pro-oxidant and pro-inflammatory” meals, they may help counterbalance their negative effects. “Given the content and availability of fat and sugars in the Western diet, regular consumption of phenolic-rich foods, particularly in conjunction with meals, appears to be a prudent strategy to maintain oxidative balance and health.”

And of all fruits, berries may be the best source. So, for example, here’s the spike in oxidation caused by a Mediterranean meal of pasta, tomato sauce, olive oil, and fried fish. Obviously, not enough tomatoes. Add a glass of red wine, which contains berry phytonutrients from grapes, and we can bring down the level of oxidation, but not blunt it completely. So, the meal needs even more plants.

In this study, they gave people standard breakfast items, resulting in lots of oxidized cholesterol in their bloodstream one, two, three, four, five, six hours after the meal. But, all it took was a cup of strawberries with that same breakfast to at least keep the meal from contributing to further oxidation. Note, though, without the strawberries, look where we’d be at lunchtime. Let’s say we ate a standard American breakfast at 6 am, then 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, noon. If we didn’t eat that cup of strawberries with breakfast, by the time lunch rolls around, we’d already be starting out in a hyper-oxidized state and could just make things worse. “Since western eating patterns include eating multiple meals a day, including snacks, one can only speculate on the level of biological unrest.”

But, at least if we had some berries for breakfast, we’d be starting out at baseline for lunch. “This acute protection is likely due to the antioxidant effects of the strawberry phytonutrients.”

Even better than baseline, how about our meal actually improving our antioxidant status? Here’s measuring the antioxidant level of one’s bloodstream after a crappy meal. It drops, using up our antioxidant stores. But, eat a big bunch of red grapes with the meal, and the antioxidant level of our bloodstream goes up, such that our body is in a positive antioxidant balance for a few hours. Same thing after enough blueberries. And, imagine if these ensuing hours between our next meal, right, we were sipping green tea, or hibiscus? We’d have this nice antioxidant surplus all day long.

What, according to the researchers, are the practical implications? “These data provide an interesting perspective for advising individuals on food choices when consuming a moderate- to high-fat meal is unavoidable.” Unavoidable? So, if we’re like locked in a fast food joint, or something? Well, then they suggest chasing whatever we’re forced to eat with some berries. Reminds me of those studies on smokers I talked about, suggesting those who smoke should eat lots of kale and broccoli to reduce the oxidative damage to their DNA—or, they could just not smoke.

“In a single day, the systemic stress of [all that fat in our blood] and redox imbalance [being in a mild pro-oxidant state after meals] may seem trivial. Over time, however, these daily insults can lead to complicated atherosclerosis,” contributing to hundreds of thousands of deaths a year.

64 responses to “Antioxidant-Rich Foods with Every Meal”

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Off-topic, Dr Greger, but is there any data to suggest that what we feed our children can cause malignancy later on in their adult lives? I understand that childhood is the critical time for pro vs anti-cancer nutrition, but I have been unable to find the evidence…..
Thanks for your help.

i think that you got to look out in the field of nutrigenomics/epigenetics… IMHO probably the maternal environment could play a key role to avoid possible genotoxic effect on the baby… want to write more, but out of time… best regards…

Some diets may prevent malignancy later in life. The benefit of soy phytoestrogens in breast cancer prevention may be limited to consumption during puberty and just before. There’s a brief discussion in “5. Timing is Everything” of this Nature editorial and in this Cornell brief.

True to Merio and Darryl. DH: in some aspect of health, we learn from study video within this website that cancer/tumor is one of the disease that accumulative within our aging. if someone gets cancer detection now it means the cancer have been growing “rapidly” (because of bad life style and diet so the body failed to fight back effectively the cancer) started from 5-10 years ago.

It seems like many of us should be growing berries and leafy greens, because they are expensive in stores and they last longer on the bush than when picked. Many leafy greens are weeds that were originally brought here as nutritious vegetables, such as dandelion, garlic mustard, sow thistle, plantain leaf, shot weed (cress) and burnet salad. Nutritionists when checking them almost always find them more nutritious than store bought vegetables. Easy to grow? They are weeds! People are trying to kill them.
John S
PDX OR

John S, ever heard of the “dollar weed” or pennywort??? A pervasive “weed” here in Florida…I ADORE it …it is totally edible and quite beneficial as long as it hasn’t been sprayed with herbicides! I love it when they grow alongside of my arugula! EAT the WEEDS , folks!

I recently saw your video on milk negating the antioxidant value of berries down to zero. Does your research still validate this view? If so, how much time must pass between drinking milk or soy milk and eating berries to get the full benefit of both? Is it also true for the other milks such as almond milk?

See pages S78-80 (“Matrix effects”) of this review of berry ﬂavonoids and phenolics. Some studies have shown reduced absorption with milk, others no effect. Its suggested that milk has a greater impact with moderate flavonoid food than with high flavonoid extracts used in research. Not mentioned is this paper, which found addition of cream delayed, but did not reduce, absorption of strawberry flavonoids.

It appears no research has been done with non-almond polyphenols and almond milk.

Great information, except I would add that the strawberries be organically grown since most commercial strawberry growers in the USA can spray with methyl bromide, chloropicrin, and Telone (1,3-D), which have their own pro-oxidative consequences metabolically, especially in the liver and the immune system.

One other aspect that ought to be considered with regard to this information is the effect(s) of genetically modified crops in the diet, even though they are plants, have on the human organism, since GMO crops are sprayed with inordinate amounts of the chemical glyphosate. Please see this http://www.enveurope.com/content/24/1/24 Shouldn’t we be eating LESS chemically-laden plant foods than more, if we want to maintain optimum health, longer-lasting telomeres, and less pro-oxidative stress?

So you’d recommend against organic for the time being, as minimization of “less toxic chemical applications” cannot be guaranteed? Or am I mistaking the overall implication? Certainly non-organic is far cheaper!

I just wanted to counter Catherine’s statement that non-organic vegetables are harmful. A lack of organic options (not everyone lives near a health food store) is not a good reason to avoid eating plenty of vegetables, as the health benefits of conventional produce still far outweigh any risks. I largely agree with Christie Wilcox on the comparative merits (1, 2). Sustainable, low-chemical input agriculture is possible and desirable, but the marketing category “organic” will never be as informative as meeting your local farmer..

Most people in the USA about 90% don’t even get the minimum RDA of fruits (which is two servings per day) and vegetables (which is 3 serving per day) per day. With Obesity growing, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Lets focus on getting produce any way we can because most of the population is not even getting ANY.

I love the antioxidants, but I’ve been long-brewing (at both cold and hot temps) my tea for years. Now I wonder if I need to curb my tea habit (or at least change my brewing time). No info on how much metal leeches into cold-brewed tea.

I was asking more about the personal cost-benefit analysis of consuming organic produce – do you think the benefits of improved health actually exceed the steep costs of organic produce (in Canada, it seems the organic produce is incredibly expensive, perhaps because most of it is imported from down south). Looking forward to your comments…

Personally, no. Recognized nutrient content is similar, and antioxidant phenol content is increased through insect herbivory and abiotic stresses, which would make the produce unmarketable. The insect bitten leaf from a home garden may be the healthiest. As noted in links in my response above, its no longer so clear that higher applications of less effective/selective natural source pest and weed control compounds are safer than current “soft” (quickly degraded) synthetics. As for GMOs, I largely agree with former anti-GMO activist and current climate journalist Mark Lynas.

During 2 weeks of eating organic, the pesticides in the kid’s urine dropped off dramatically. Of course, one could argue that the pesticides normally found in the kid’s urine are no problem. But I can’t imagine how it would be harmless.

The EPA decision on chlorpyrifos (the predominant organophosphate found in that study).
• occupational exposure is a concern, with high doses overstimulating the nervous system causing nausea, dizziness and confusion
• dietary exposures are lower than 0.01% of the lowest adverse effect chronic dose level seen in animal studies.
And from this review
• its not carcinogenic
• it doesn’t bioaccumulate (note its disappearance from urine in the video)
• human neurodevelopmental outcomes in agricultural areas did not correlate with urinary metabolite levels.

Mind, I’m not saying use of organophosphates like chlorpyrifos or pesticides approved for organic agriculture is a good thing (I’d much rather see integrated pest management, companion planting, etc.). Only that (as with a lot of hazards), innumerate fear and marketing language (“all-natural”, “organic” etc) isn’t the best basis for making decisions.

Darryl: All good points. I believe I understand what you are saying and agree to a point. I certainly “fear” eggs far more than I would fear a conventionally grown say mellon. However, I wouldn’t dismiss your first bullet. For me, that’s important too.

Also, while I think I understand your point, I think that going organic is likely to give overall advantages. In other words, I would guess that stacking up a random sampling of organic produce against a random sampling of “conventional” produce would show the organic to be less toxic over all. I don’t know that. I just believe it.

So for me, buying organic when I can does this: 1) sends a message to the capitalists that I care about food safety and the environment (regardless of whether they have actually made it safer by growing organic or not)–hopefully leading to better decisions by those people in the future, 2) helped the farmers who actually work with my food, 3) possibly helped my health.

That’s really the best I can do at this point in my life. I’m not interested in being a farmer myself or lobbying or grilling local farmers, etc.

Seems to me that much of this topic is still speculative. Most of the results come from measuring antioxidant effects in a piece of laboratory equipment, a machine rather then the effects in the human body. It could be that antioxidants have no real effect in the human body, or if they do, it’s because of other properties they have other than being antioxidant. Just the same, I find myself eating lots of berries, beans, greens, mushrooms, garlic, onions, broccoli, yams, apples and other vegetables and fruits.

All the conflicting dietary advicde from different people with different points of view can get very confusing! What is your reacttion to those who claim that fruits and vegetables should not be combined at the same meal beczause it imp[edes digestion and absorbtions

Hello Dr. Greger, I love your videos, educational and funny!
I am wondering about antioxidant rich foods, you mentioned berries like strawberries and blueberries are very high in antioxidants. But I was wondering about the pesticide load on them, from all I know strawberries are sprayed with hundreds of chemicals and I suppose the same goes for blueberries. Buying organic is out of the question for me, considering the price of the berries. I used to pick blackberries and freeze them for the winter, will do that again. Those are never sprayed on, they are actual a bad weed around here.
Thanks again for all the info you are giving us!
Petra

Petra: I think I know where you live! Northwest America? That’s where I live and blackberries are considered a weed here. (And they are in the sense of how they grow and take over.)

As for your question: Dr. Greger has a great blog post where he puts pesticide consumption into perspective. :
“A new study calculated that if half the U.S. population ate just one more serving of conventional fruits and vegetables, 20,000 cases of cancer could be prevented. At the same time the added pesticide consumption could cause up to 10 extra cancer cases. So by eating conventional produce we may get a tiny bump in cancer risk, but that’s more than compensated by the dramatic drop in risk that accompanies whole food plant consumption. Even if all we had to eat was the most contaminated produce the benefits would far outweigh any risks.”

I translate this bit of info into: Eat organic when you can, but don’t stress about it when you can’t.

Happily, there is a way to take this advice a step further to minimize your risks without completely depleting the pocketbook. Every year, the Environmental Working Group actually measures pesticide levels in fruits and veggies–after those fruits and veggies have been prepared in the way people would normally eat them. (For example, peeling a banana or washing first.) If you scroll down on the following page, you will see a list for the “Dirty Dozen” and the “Clean Fifteen”.

I bring your attention to these lists because I think they are very helpful for people who can’t afford to eat organic for everything. You could use these lists to help you decide when it is worth putting down money for organic and when it might be safer to buy non-organic.

One more thought for you: I would say that eating in the season is a good idea. So if you want to eat berries year-round (also a good idea), I personally would eat frozen berries rather than the fresh that is available in the middle of winter. Why? Because it is my understanding that frozen berries are picked when they are grown naturally and still have most of their nutrients and then are flash frozen, retaining those nutrients. Fresh this time of year I would think would have to travel long distances…

In reply to Thea’s comment, not only would fresh berries have a long way to travel in the middle of winter in places where they’re out of season (really good point btw! I wonder if they can be grown indoors/green houses?), but they’re also SO much more expensive for this reason. I did have some insanely delicious looking and smelling organic strawberries available all winter at the health food store near me, but they were ten dollars!
I imagine berries are on the list of important things to get organic due to their thin skin. I have a friend who says she started losing her hair and found out that it was likely from the conventional strawberries she was eating so much of at the time as she found out they spray them with something that can actually cause hair loss. Once she stopped and switched to organic, her hair loss stopped. Of course I haven’t done research on this and I’m just going by what she said, but if I were consuming or considering consuming conventionally grown strawberries, I would definitely want to look into it.

Good point. How much inflammation (among other things) do the chemicals on foods and also in the case of GMO’s, grown within foods, cause. Organics berries where I live are actually only about a dollar cheaper than the conventional, sometimes less even. But I find fresh berries to be very expensive to begin with so what I find helpful is to buy them frozen. You get a lot more for a lower price and you don’t have to worry about them going bad or losing nutrients during storage. I’m also starting to grow my own strawberries. Another thing that might be helpful is buying amla berry powder as it’s the highest source of antioxidants and just a teaspoon adds a huge amount of antioxidants! I get organic amla powder from Terrasoul as it’s very affordable and high quality, organic and raw. They have amazing prices on their website and free shipping when you spend over a certain relatively low amount. So amla is a really affordable way to get benefits of berries for, as Dr. Greger puts it, pennies a day.

Grading food just by antioxidant content is reductionism and
may be misleading. Onion, garlic and flax – not high on the charts, especially
when accounted for their serving size, are nevertheless healthy.

Awesome point ak017! Flax which in the amounts we take are relatively low in antioxidants, but do TREMENDOUS things for our overall health. Foods impact the body in more ways than just antioxidants. Still good to see how incredible of an impact antioxidants themselves have on the body.

Ok, add some amla to green tea and then you’ll get that great taste you get when you drink commercial brand like “honest T”. I swear that’s what they add anyway. All they say for ingredients is “natural flavor to balance acidity.” For the green tea steep it in warm water… like 130 degrees farenheight. Wait about 10 minutes and squeeze the heck out of the tea bags. Use stevia with the amla and ice it.

i am regularily stuck in a plane – since 24 years…so it is easy not to get the right food, especially if you are a vegan. i will drink hibiscus tea now, because green tea i can only drink after my break.

antioxidant supplements are not only not as good, but can actually CAUSE damage. Here is a great article explaining why: http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=143 Dr. Greger also talks about why taking antioxidants supplements aren’t a good idea in a few of his videos. The more antioxidants, the better, but from whole foods.

Dr. Greger recommends keeping frozen berries so that you always have berries around. And actually, frozen berries and even frozen vegetables often have MORE antioxidants and other nutrients because they’re frozen shortly after picking. He has a video on this somewhere here. Essentially, frozen produce is often even fresher than what we call fresh produce.

Any idea as to what the best time to eat the antioxidant rich foods is? As in is it better to enjoy a nice salad before a meal filled with antioxidant rich greens and veggies or better to go European style and have your salad after your meal? Better to have a bowl of berries as an appetizer or better as a dessert? Maybe it doesn’t matter at all, just whatever scenario your more likely to actually do.. I have begun recommending this to my clients. I tell them to do whatever they like, as long as they actually do it. I do suggest that if eaten before, some healthy greens or berries may result in them eating less of the “main course” which may be a less than ideally health promoting food. Also, why limit oneself? Why not both? Have a nice green salad, a light meal, then a dessert of berries! Sip some cold-brewed iced Hibiscus or green tea with lemon along with that meal and you get a gold star!

Why not just make your entire meal, as in every aspect of your meal (main dish, sides..) high in antioxidants? That’s the beauty of a WFPB diet. I can’t answer your question about timing but my guess is that it doesn’t matter much. Though eating a variety of foods together can be extremely beneficial.

Thanks for reposting your question, Ahmed. There are many sample meal plans I can recommend. Here is a great video explaining the work of Kaiser Permanente – the largest U.S. managed care organization that publishes patient education materials. Kaiser has established a very healthful meal plan that could help on your journey. Let’s see if other members can offer some suggestions? Dr. Greger has a video on chocolate shakes and pumpkin pie. I also find the Vegetarian Resource Group helpful for folks like you who are looking for more plant-based options, as well as the Physicians Committee providing thousands of recipes! Hope that give you a jump start!

Oxidation plays a huge part in plaque formation as it is the free radicals in the blood stream that incite the inflammatory process. The inflammatory process irritates the and activates the endothelial cells of the vessels which via the inflammatory cells – white cells and chemical signals from those cells – cytokines sets off the cascade that goes from the acute inflammatory process which becomes more chronic due to repeated assaults by eating inflammatory type foods multiple times per day. The chronic inflammation creates the plaque. Here is a schematic that describes this process that is hopefully not too complicated. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/83d0add82f1a064fa5eb5b7fc1c5209ea27d4daa239fb1c96d513eaa28eb12f6.jpg

So then what if every single thing you eat contains relevant amounts of antioxidants and most of it, very high in antioxidants? Instead of eating a standard American breakfast, what about a whole foods plant based breakfast that included the berries? And what about spices added to foods? I’d like to see what happens if we eating nothing but foods high in antioxidants.

I don’t care for the generalization of a “high fat meal” because some of my meals are high in fat (perhaps not compared to a typical SAD diet meal though) due to nuts, seeds, etc. and using a small amount of olive oil as a dressing in salads or over veggies (I do pay attention to use oil in moderation though). Not all fat is bad, it’s where it comes from. I don’t believe you need to worry about being low fan on a WFPB diet as some people tend to. Fat from plants is very healthy. Though I’m guessing that my idea of high fat despite eating a lot of nuts and things, is minuscule compared to a typical American meal of things cooked in butter/lard/etc., lathered in butter, eggs, meat, dairy… It probably accumulates to a scary amount of fat. Still, it’s the type of fat that is what’s so dangerous.

I think the video already answers my question, but would also like to know if the Psyllium husk also helps.
I follow the daily dozen quite regularly and love it. I was wondering. When I do eat a non compliant meal, usually out to dinner, what’s the best thing to do other than try to limit the meat, oil and salt, etc? I do still try to eat steamed veggies with my lean small steak and eliminate any mashed potatoes etc. My thought has been to drink a glass of water with 2 teaspoons of Psyllium husk before going out to dinner and then as desert or when I get home, eat a bowl of mixed berries. Thoughts? I’m 52 years old, quite healthy, but found out 2 years ago that I have a calcium score of 500. So glad I found you in time to get my cholesterol down. My small particle LDL was really high, which likely came from genetics.

Brad,
Eating the berries for dessert sounds like an excellent idea to counteract any unwholesome foods you may have consumed at a meal. I don’t believe the psyllium husk would be as helpful as just trying to choose some good Whole Food Plants with your meal. Psyllium is not a whole food product. It is a form of fiber extracted from plant seeds and provides minimal nutritional benefit, other than stimulating your bowels to move. Fortunately more and more restaurants are catering to plant -based eaters.

Thank you. Ya the psyllium was to fill me up to prevent overindulging and since it has so much fiber, especially soluble, that it would bind w fats cholesterol etc and would move through me faster. What do you think of that logic???